Investigating how STEM Baccalaureate Graduates use Assets Developed through Higher Education to Navigate Career Transitions

该项目关注STEM教育和劳动力管道中的一个关键节点，即社区大学学生向学士学位课程和潜在的研究生院的过渡。这一过渡期对于那些在STEM学习领域总体参与度偏低的群体的学生来说尤其重要。调查人员的目标是了解STEM转学学生在过渡到学士学位后的职业生涯或研究生院时如何利用资产，例如通过高等教育获得的学科合作机会。该项目的动机是对社区大学学生进行的一项先前的研究，该研究记录了失去的研究机会、实习和工作；研究生院计划脱轨或推迟；与远程教学有关的挑战；毕业延迟；以及STEM能力感下降。这项研究将通过探索毕业生经历和结果的群体差异，以及一个概念模型来说明影响学生毕业后选择和过渡的因素之间的关系，从而提出细微差别的建议，以改进实践。这一结果可能会为缓解社区大学学生STEM管道泄漏的干预措施提供参考。调查人员将追求三个目标。首先是纵向调查来自三所公立大学的不同STEM学士毕业生进入早期职业或研究生/专业学校的过渡情况。第二是比较社区学院和直接进入大学的毕业生的职业转变和成果。第三是使用基于资产的框架来探索毕业生如何利用在高等教育期间发展起来的网络、技能和能力来适应大学毕业后的过渡。核心研究问题是，最近毕业的STEM学士毕业生--包括以前的转校生--如何利用那些通过高等教育发展起来的资产来驾驭大学毕业后的早期过渡？调查人员将使用混合方法的描述性案例研究设计来收集和分析分层抽样的STEM毕业生的个人访谈数据，并使用对学生STEM路径的叙事分析来补充分析编码。关注学科联合课程活动的长期结果将使这项研究能够提供特定学科的建议，以加强本科生准备和STEM专业环境之间的联系。该项目由EHR核心研究计划(ECR)资助。ECR支持基础STEM教育研究项目，这些项目涉及STEM学习和学习环境、扩大STEM领域的参与和STEM劳动力发展。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project focuses on a critical juncture in the STEM education and workforce pipeline, the transition of community college students into baccalaureate degree programs and potentially to graduate school. This transition period is especially important for students from groups that are underrepresented in their overall participation in STEM fields of study. The goal of the investigators is to understand how STEM transfer students use assets, such as disciplinary co-curricular opportunities obtained through higher education, as they transition into post-baccalaureate careers or graduate school. The project is motivated by a prior study of community college students that documented lost research opportunities, internships, and jobs; derailed or delayed plans for graduate school; challenges related to remote instruction; delays in graduation; and decreased sense of competency in STEM. The study will produce nuanced recommendations to improve practice by exploring group differences in graduates’ experiences and outcomes and a conceptual model that illustrates the relationship among factors that influence students’ post-college choices and transitions. The results could inform interventions to mitigate the leaky STEM pipeline for community college students. The investigators will pursue three objectives. First is to longitudinally investigate transitions into early careers or graduate/professional school of a diverse population of STEM baccalaureate graduates from three public universities. Second is to compare graduates’ professional transitions and outcomes for students who began their studies in community college and those who entered the university directly. Third is to use an asset-based framework to explore how graduates use networks, skills, and competencies developed during higher education to navigate post-college transitions. The central research question is how are recent STEM baccalaureate graduates – including former transfer students – using those assets developed through higher education to navigate early post-college transitions? The investigators will use a mixed-methods descriptive case study design to collect and analyze data from individual interviews with a stratified sample of STEM graduates and employ narrative analysis of students’ STEM pathways to complement analytic coding. Focusing on longer-term outcomes from disciplinary, co-curricular activities will enable the study to provide discipline-specific recommendations to strengthen connections between undergraduate preparation and STEM professional environments.The project is funded by the EHR Core Research Program (ECR). ECR supports fundamental STEM education research projects that address STEM learning and learning environments, broadening participation in STEM fields, and STEM workforce development.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.